The Montgomery Advertiser
- SIX GREAT EVENTS WITH $1,500 PURSE FOR FREE-FOR-ALL
- JURY CONVICTS TWO FOR OSAGE INDIANS' DEATH IN OKLAHOMA
- FACES MURDER CHARGE
The Montgomery Advertiser of October 30, 1926, carried a local report from the Alabama State Fair, where Friday had been set apart for Black school children. The paper said the crowd held up well against Thursday's record attendance, that the segregated negro building was crowded all day with visitors viewing Black exhibitors' work, and that about 5,000 Black pupils had attended. An AP dispatch from Oklahoma City reported that a federal jury had convicted cattleman William K. Hale and cowboy farmer John Ramsey of murdering Osage tribesman Henry Roan for $25,000 in insurance, imposed life sentences, and described the terror among the Osage, whom it called the richest aboriginal people in the world. A short AP item from Omaha reported that a 52-year-old man faced a first-degree murder charge after shooting a 16-year-old boy during a Halloween prank.
Translation
SIX GREAT EVENTS WITH $1,500 PURSE FOR FREE-FOR-ALL
Throngs of people continued to pour through the gates of the fair grounds Friday. The crowd was in good proportion to that of Thursday, when all previous records for attendance at the fair were shattered. A large percentage of the visitors at the fair Friday were negroes, Friday having been set apart for the school children of that race. At all hours of the day the negro building was crowded with spectators who came to view examples of the work done by negroes displayed in the booths of their building. It was officially announced last night that about 5,000 negro school children attended the state fair yesterday. It
JURY CONVICTS TWO FOR OSAGE INDIANS' DEATH IN OKLAHOMA
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA., Oct. 29 — (AP) — After months of work in which thousands of dollars was spent, the government today convicted William K. Hale, northern Oklahoma cattle man and alleged leader of a murder conspiracy that struck terror into the Osage tribe of Indians several years ago. Hale, known as the "king of the Osage Hills," and John Ramsey, a cowboy farmer, were found guilty by a jury in federal court on a charge of slaying Henry Roan, an Osage, who was shot to death, the government charged, so that Hale could collect $25,000 insurance which he carried on the Indian's life. The jury imposed life sentences. Nearly a score of persons met violent deaths in the Osage county within the space of two years. As death followed death, the Osages, the richest aboriginal people in the world, became terrorized. Some strung electric lights about their homes at night for protection.
FACES MURDER CHARGE
OMAHA, NEB., Oct. 29. — (AP) — Thomas Cerovac, 52, will be charged with first degree murder as the result of shooting to death Erik Kallvik, 16, one of a group of neighbor boys who were attempting to push over an outbuilding on the [?] premises last night as a Halloween joke. Cerovac told the police he was only attempting to scare the boys. The boys told police Cerovac threw a club that struck young Kallvik, then fired his revolver.
Context
Why the Hale case was tried in federal court
The dispatch stresses that Hale and Ramsey were convicted "in federal court," and that venue was the result of a legal fight. According to the account of United States v. Ramsey, the two men were first tried in a state court at Guthrie, Oklahoma, in 1926 for Roan's killing; that trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial, and the U.S. Attorney then moved the case to Oklahoma City and indicted them federally for murder on federal land. The defendants argued that the federal government lacked jurisdiction, and the district court agreed, but on appeal the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Osage lands were Indian Country and that the federal government therefore had jurisdiction. Federal prosecution mattered because the Osage had found minimal help from local law enforcement, which was dominated by powerful whites working in their own interests. The federal verdict the paper reports was therefore reached outside the local authorities that had failed to solve the killings.
How federal agents built the case against Hale
The AP's "months of work in which thousands of dollars was spent" refers to an investigation that had begun years earlier. The FBI's history states that the Osage Tribal Council petitioned for federal detectives and that the newly created Bureau of Investigation, the agency that would become the FBI, assigned agents after receiving the petition in April 1923. Tom White led a team of four agents who went undercover as an insurance salesman, cattle buyer, oil prospector and herbal doctor. The case broke when Hale's nephew began to talk and others confessed; agents proved that Hale ordered the murders of Anna Brown and her family to inherit their oil rights and of her cousin Henry Roan for the insurance. Bureau investigators also discovered that Hale held a $25,000 insurance policy on Roan, the same sum the dispatch gives as the government's theory of motive.
The 1926 verdict and the retrial that followed
The life sentences reported here were the first federal verdict, and the case was later reopened. According to the case history, the defendants were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, and within days both Hale and Ramsey appealed. The appeals court found that testimony about the Smith bombing was not relevant to the Roan murder and was prejudicial against Hale. In 1929 Hale and Ramsey were retried for the murder, and the FBI dates Hale's conviction and imprisonment to January 1929. The paper's statement that "the government today convicted" Hale therefore describes the opening round of the federal case.
Osage oil wealth and the scale of the killings
The dispatch calls the Osage "the richest aboriginal people in the world," and that wealth came from oil. Each tribal member held headrights to the mineral rights on communal land, and in 1923 alone the tribe took in more than $30 million. The paper's count of "nearly a score" of violent deaths within two years is much smaller than later tallies: at least 60 wealthy, full-blood Osage persons were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. The AP figure is a contemporary count, while the later reckoning covers a longer span and puts the toll about three times higher.
The segregated Negro Building at the Alabama State Fair
The fair report's "negro building" and a Friday "set apart" for Black school children reflect a segregated arrangement with a history at the Montgomery fair. By the 1906 Alabama State Fair, the Alabama Agricultural Association had begun encouraging African American entries. That year's Negro Building was an L-shaped structure designed by Walter Thomas Bailey of Tuskegee Institute under the direction of Booker T. Washington, and October 27, 1906, was designated "Negro Day," with a speech by Washington, a horse race and a parade. About a thousand white people also visited that building, which was removed after the fair ended. The 1906 record shows an earlier instance of a separate building and a separate day, while the 1926 details, including the crowded booths and the figure of about 5,000 children, rest on the paper's own report of an official announcement.
Halloween outbuilding pranks and a fatal response
The Omaha boys were attempting a long-standing Halloween prank. Before the 20th century, Halloween mischief in the United States and Canada happened on October 31 and consisted of tipping over outhouses, unhinging farmers' gates and throwing eggs at houses. By the 1920s and 1930s, historians say, the celebrations had become more like a rowdy block party and the acts of vandalism more serious. Concerned parents and town leaders later tried to stem the vandalism by plying children with candy, encouraging trick-or-treating in its place. The Omaha item shows one property owner's response turning lethal, and it leaves the facts in dispute: Cerovac said he meant only to scare the boys, while the boys told police he struck Kallvik with a club before firing.
Original
SIX GREAT EVENTS WITH $1,500 PURSE FOR FREE-FOR-ALL
Throngs of people continued to pour through the gates of the fair grounds Friday. The crowd was in good proportion to that of Thursday, when all previous records for attendance at the fair were shattered. A large percentage of the visitors at the fair Friday were negroes, Friday having been set apart for the school children of that race. At all hours of the day the negro building was crowded with spectators who came to view examples of the work done by negroes displayed in the booths of their building. It was officially announced last night that about 5, 000 negro school children attended the state fair yesterday. It
JURY CONVICTS TWO FOR OSAGE INDIANS' DEATH IN OKLAHOMA
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA.. Oct. 29 - (AP) - After months of work in which thousands of dollars was spent, the government today convicted William K. Hale, northern Oklahoma cattle man and alleged leader of a murder conspiracy that struck terror into the Osage tribe of Indians several years ago. Hale, known as the " king of the Osage Hills, " and John Ramsey, a cowboy farmer, were found guilty by a jury in federal court on a charge of slaying Henry Roan, an Osage, who was shot to death, the government charged, so that Hale could collect $ 25, 000 insurance which he carried on the Indian's life. The jury imposed life sentences. Nearly a score of persons met violent deaths in the Osage county within the space of two years. As death followed death, the Osages, the richest aboriginal people in the world, became terrorized. Some strung electric lights about their homes at night for protection.
FACES MURDER CHARGE
OMAHA, NEB., Oct. 29. - (AP) - Thomas Cerovac, 52, will be charged with first degree murder as the result of shooting to death Erik Kallvik, 16, one of a group of neighbor boys who were attempting to push over an outbuilding on the [?] premises last night as a Halloween joke. Cerovac told the police he was only attempting to scare the boys. The boys told police Cerovac threw a club that struck young Kallvik, then fired his revolver.
Source: Holding institution